Research Interests

I am an archaeological scientist specialising in radiocarbon dating. I did my PhD in the IMPRS Leipzig School of Human Origins in the Department of Human Evolution at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, where I now work as a researcher.

I am interested in the chronology of the expansion of Homo sapiens into and across Europe during the Middle to Upper Palaeolithic Transition and the subsequent Upper Palaeolithic. Obtaining direct radiocarbon dates from key fossils and artefacts is essential to establishing a robust, high-resolution chronological framework for this fascinating period of our history. However, very few bones survive from these contexts and many of those remaining are small or fragmentary. With the aim of minimising destructive sampling of precious archaeological bones, such as human remains, my doctoral thesis centred on methods and applications for radiocarbon dating very small amounts of Palaeolithic bone (<100 mg). This involved refining our collagen extraction protocol for very small bone samples alongside extensive testing of the accuracy, precision and reproducibility of the gas ion source of the MICADAS AMS for dating tiny collagen samples containing <100 ug carbon. I am now working on chronological questions at a range of prehistoric sites across Eurasia spanning the Late Middle and Upper Palaeolithic.